


The Prince Of Darkness

by TheAwesomeWriter



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-29 07:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14467464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAwesomeWriter/pseuds/TheAwesomeWriter
Summary: What happens when Emma Swan tries to take the Dagger, but fate conspires to change things?





	1. The Dark Prince

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Robin4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin4/gifts).



> Here we go. I've been planning this for a while...

* * *

**Disclaimer:**   _Once Upon A Time, all related concepts and anything you recognise do not belong to me. I am merely borrowing them to bring you this story - and for my own personal enjoyment - as they actually belong to Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis. Any OC's and things you do not recognise, however, are copyrighted to me, TheAwesomeWriter._

 **Rating:**   _Mature._

 **Pairings:**   _TBA_

 **Genre:**   _Fantasy/Drama_

 **Warnings:**   _TBA_

 **Story Summary:** _What happens when Emma Swan tries to take the Dagger, but fate conspires to change things?_

 **Thank You:**   _Thank you to anyone and everyone who brainstormed this story with me._

* * *

  **Chapter I: The Dark Prince**

* * *

"I love you..."

On those words, Emma Swan plunged her hand into the massive deadly vortex of Darkness that was whirling and swirling around Regina. The Darkness began sliding the length of her arm, surrounding her, engulfing her, blocking the outside world from her vision.

"Mom, no!"

_"HENRY!"_

"Oof!"

Something hit her like a brick wall and she toppled forward, cartwheeling over herself and landing on the floor with a crack. Bruised but mercifully unbroken, she glanced up. There, Darkness whirling around him, was Henry. All she could do was gape in terror as her son was lifted high into the air, screaming in pain, before vanishing in an explosion of Darkness that sent them all toppling.

The dagger hit the ground with a metallic clang, two horrifying words glistening mockingly under the moonlight - _Henry Mills._

Then, mere seconds after landing, lingering just long enough to mock them, it vanished in a flicker of Darkness. 

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

On the outskirts of Storybrooke, in a tiny little manhole that no-one knew had actually come over with the last Dark Curse, Darkness began to move. It bubbled and burbled and grumbled and a body began to emerge from it, dripping with Darkness that oozed from every available orifice like oil pouring from buckets; first formed the head - pale, brown haired and hazel eyed - then the body - thin and angled, long fingers twitching, dagger clasped between two thin digits - then the legs - long and limber, feet encased in a pair of boots.

Finally, gasping for breath, Henry Mills was fully formed. He blinked and then looked down at himself; his boots were a very dark black, a shade that his mother would have favoured in her evil years, his trousers were leather and form fitting, also black, his t-shirt was a dark grey and his jacket was a blue denim colour.

Then he caught sight of the dagger and, in shock, dropped it.

"A bit of a shock, isn't it?"

Henry whirled around, dagger instinctively raised as it flew back into his hand, to face the person who had spoken; magic exploded from him in a flash of light, but the person opposite was entirely unaffected. He frowned.

 _"Kill!"_ screamed a voice in his head. _"Kill! Kill! Kill!"_

"Grandpa?" he queried, seeing what appeared to be Rumplestiltskin, scales and all, standing in front of him.

"A-not quite," said the visage in front of him, smirking maliciously and doing that ridiculous hand movement his grandfather oft favoured. "The Darkness," it said, bowing mockingly. "At your service."

Then, it hit him. Crying out in pain, moonlight shining down on him, he fell to his knees, clutching at his head as white noise roared through his brain, pounding at his skull, ringing through his ears; voices screamed and memories flashed and the dagger slipped from his fingers, stabbing into the soft soil beneath his boots.

"You'll get over that," said the Darkness in that squeaking Rumplestiltskin voice.

"Yeah," grunted Henry, scooping up the dagger and pushing himself to his feet as the noise began to subside. "I probably will. But how do I shut  _you_ up?"

The Darkness tittered and twitched, weaving its arms around. "Why... by accepting the Darkness, of course..."

Henry clenched his teeth uncomfortably as he headed off.

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

Returning to Granny's after an entire night of searching, Regina Mills slammed the door behind her as the sun rose above the horizon, despondent and defeated; immediately, she began to tear up as she caught sight of Emma, staring at a photograph of a ten year old Henry and nursing an extremely large tankard of hot cocoa.

"Any luck?" she asked, glancing around at Hook, Robin, David, Mary Margaret and Emma sat at the table. 

"Nothing," sighed Emma. "We've tried everything."

"Not... everything," said Robin; all eyes in the room flicked in his direction. "Well, I'm not sure it will actually work. You'd know better than I would, Regina - I heard, back in the Enchanted Forest, that you could summon the Dark One, even if you don't have the dagger, by saying their name three times."

"That's true," said Regina, conceding that her boyfriend had a point. "I've summoned Rumple - mainly to shout at him - by using that method before." She straightened up, returning to her full height and, staring at a spot opposite her, by the jukebox, spoke clear: "Henry Mills. Henry Mills. Henry Mills."

The room was as silent as it had always been.

"Come on," she hissed angrily. "Don't make me summon you, young man!"

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

Henry plodded through the woods on the outskirts of Storybrooke, the Darkness twittering and tittering along next to him, slowly becoming less annoying by the second; twirling the dagger between his fingers, he stopped at a gap in the undergrowth and stared at the rising sun in the distance as it bathed Storybrooke in a faint red glow.

 _This is brilliant!_   _Why didn't I do this ages ago? I can do whatever I want whenever I want - I can drive David's car - I can have ice-cream for breakfast - no-one can stop me anymore!_

He didn't stop the thoughts as they whirled through his head, couldn't have stopped them even if he had tried. Twirling the dagger between his fingers again, he grinned nastily, entirely unaware of it, as he stared down at his Kingdom below. The Darkness grinned nastily at his side.

He frowned as he felt a pull at his navel.

"You're being summoned," said the Darkness, knowingly. 

A second pull at his navel made him growl in annoyance. The third made him vanish against his will - immediately he took in his surroundings as he reappeared; Granny's, his family and Robin and Hook around the table. He leaned against the jukebox and raised a hand lackadaisically to flick a small part of his fringe out of his face as he crossed his arms and watched them for a moment.

"Don't make me summon you, young man!" hissed his mother angrily.

He smiled maliciously and barely stopped himself from cackling, knowing the need to remain quiet until the time was right, until he had the upper hand, until he could win whatever was about to occur. He schooled his face into a less nasty look and then waved a hand gently. The jukebox to his right began to play and the group turned to look at him, eyes wide, jaws falling. 

_"The winner takes it all, the loser standing small, beside the victory -"_

"Henry?" queried his mother, barely able to believe her eyes at the sight of her leather and denim clad son. Something inhuman inside Henry flared up at the sight of her disbelieving face.

"Yes?" he asked, glancing uninterested over at her. "You did summon me?"

"Kid." His other mother got up, pulling him tightly into a hug, leather jacket squeaking against him. "You're alright."

His mother closed the gap around the table and crushed him into a hug as well; squashed between the two women, he could feel the Darkness bubbling up and heard Rumplestiltskin's voice cackle: "Only a weakling takes hugs. That's what love is - weakness."

"I am not weak!" he hissed, whirling around to face Rumplestiltskin, dagger drawn out of nowhere, face furious, anger boiling as he shoved his mothers aside in a blast of uncontrollable magic.

Regina barely reacted in time, skidding to a halt with her hands raised to stop the blast of magic from her son. "Henry," she tried, to no avail. "We never said you were weak."

"It's my name on the dagger isn't it?!" snapped Henry, brandishing it wildly at Rumplestiltskin. _"I_ _sn't it!?_ "

Granny's began to rattle.

"Kid - who are you talking too? There's no-one there."

His mothers' voices didn't even register in his head as his anger bubbled and boiled and, finally, exploded.

"Be gone," he commanded, eyes flashing yellow, voice full of power and order as he held the dagger up horizontally. "Be gone until I summon you again - _if_ I summon you again!"

Rumplestiltskin glanced at him, shocked and, however reluctantly, vanished. Granny's was now rumbling heavily, glasses and plates and pots crashing and smashing to the floor as Henry stood there, seething in his own anger, Darkness squealing around him, dancing gleefully around such a willing user.

Seconds later, it was back, slinking up behind him, whispering in his ear. "You'll have to do better than that to be rid of me. They want the dagger - see how they look?"

Henry glanced over his shoulder at his family, all eyes drawn to the dagger, and the Darkness did what it did best - played on his emotions, his anger and fear bubbling under the surface. "See how they look - how they crave it..."

The dagger vanished from Henry's hands in seconds, vanishing back into wherever it went when he wasn't using it, and his eyes widened as fear bubbled up inside him, fear for his power, for what they'd do to obtain it.

 _Escape,_ he thought _. I have too -_

He barely heard his family shouting his name as his hand moved and he vanished in a puff of smoke, splattering down seconds later into a puddle of mud in the outskirts of the Storybrooke forest. 

  **~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

"Henry!"

It was too late - her son vanished in a puff of pure black smoke.

"What the hell was that all about?" asked Emma, glancing across at Regina.

"No idea," she admitted. "Rumple was always insane back in the Enchanted Forest - less insane than when you imprisoned him - but insane nonetheless. Always chattering to people who weren't there, always speaking in riddles."

"Do you think the same thing is happening to Henry?" asked Mary Margaret anxiously. "That's he's seeing people who aren't there? That's he's going mad?"

"I don't know," sighed Regina as she almost fainted into the chair nearby. "I really don't know. Oh, Henry, what's wrong with you?"

A clap of thunder and a downpour of rain, mere seconds later, indicated to her how events would go.

   **~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

_I can't let them get it - they'll take it from me - try to use me - it's mine - I won't let them - this is my power - my magic - I'll make them pay for thinking of taking it._

Henry ran, splattering through the puddles, slopping through the mud, fear coursing through him as he leapt over a fallen tree stump. He splattered to a halt, skidding in the mud, as he reached the deep undergrowth of the forest. Slumping down against a tree, he clutched the dagger close to him, rubbing it comfortingly against his face, eyes flashing between yellow and hazel repeatedly, uncontrollably.

"Using the Darkness felt good, didn't it?"

Henry jumped, dagger immediately held horizontal in front of him; a tree opposite toppled backward, knocked flat by his magic, crashing to the ground with an enormous crunch.

_It's mine - not theirs - they can't - I won't let them - I need it - I want it._

"Yes," he admitted to Rumplestiltskin, after what seemed like a life time, as the Darkness sat down beside him. "How did you know?"

"Look," said Rumplestiltskin, pointing down at Henry's hands.

Henry held his hands up, barely able to believe his eyes, dagger vanishing as he stared in shock. Scales, green and golden, were spreading rapidly across his hands, covering the backs, vanishing up the arm holes of his jacket.

"What's happening?" he asked, glancing fearfully across to Rumplestiltskin.

"You're becoming the Dark One," tittered the Darkness. "We all suffer it in some way - the darker you are, the worse it is. You're in a bit of a sticky situation, aren't you? You want to be good, but if you are good you will let your guard down and they will steal your dagger, your power, use you for whatever they desire. You'd never be free again."

_It's mine - mine - mine._

Henry cackled. "I won't let them take it," he said to the Darkness as he re-summoned the dagger. "My solemn vow. The dagger is mine - mine - mine - mine alone. I won't let them. I need it. I want it..."

As Henry sat there, whispering and cackling to himself, the Darkness silently congratulated itself on a job well done.

Henry Mills was officially broken, officially belonged to the Darkness, officially lost to the light.

* * *

 **Next up - Chapter II: The Monster Inside -** in which Henry falls deeper into the Darkness, Regina has a showdown with Henry with disastrous consequences, and the Charming Family search for a magical object capable of waking Gold up. 


	2. The Monster Inside

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter II: The Monster Inside - in which Henry falls deeper into the Darkness, Regina has a showdown with Henry with disastrous consequences, and the Charming Family search for a magical object capable of waking Gold up.

* * *

**Disclaimer:**   _Once Upon A Time, all related concepts and anything you recognise do not belong to me. I am merely borrowing them to bring you this story - and for my own personal enjoyment - as they actually belong to Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis. Any OC's and things you do not recognise, however, are copyrighted to me, TheAwesomeWriter._

 **Rating:**   _Mature._

 **Pairings:**   _TBA_

 **Genre:**   _Fantasy/Drama_

 **Warnings:**   _TBA_

 **Story Summary:** _What happens when Emma Swan tries to take the Dagger, but fate conspires to change things?_

 **Thank You:**   _Thank you to anyone and everyone who brainstormed this story with me._

* * *

  **Chapter II: The Monster Inside**

* * *

Henry Mills ducked behind the side of Gold's Pawnbrokers, watching people pass by on their daily tasks. When he was sure the coast was clear, he wringed his gloved hands together and pushed open the door.

He winced as the bell chimed and quickly scanned his grandfather's shop, eyes flicking left to right, until - _there it is -_ his eyes caught sight of the ruined Sorcerer's Hat sitting on one of the display cases. He darted over to it, breathe catching, disbelieving as he picked it up and eyed it hungrily.

"I'll be out in a moment."

Belle's voice made Henry jump, dropping the hat with a thump onto the glass. _Shit! I can't let her see me!_

"Henry?"

Belle had emerged from the back of the shop, a frown on her beautiful face; Henry reacted before he thought, panic shooting through him, knocking her back with a blast of magic. She flew through the air, smashed against the cash register and toppled, unconscious, over the top, hitting the ground with a hard thump. Racing over to her, desperate for time, he dropped the hat onto the desk by the cash-register, crouched down and summoned the dagger. "You can't ever know I was here..."

He waved the dagger over her face, the memories rising from her head and into the dagger, wrapping around it.

As he stood up, the doorbell chimed.

"Henry?" came a familiar shocked voice and he whirled around, eyes widening...

_Fuck..._

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

Regina Mills hated many things - her mother, cheese and Zelena, for example - but the one thing she hated the most was when Rumplestiltskin was out of action, as it meant her enemies could get the upper hand. Despite her best wishes, her 'enemies' included her beloved son at this very moment.

Rumple always knew how to fix the situation and, to save her son, she was willing to pay any price - her life, her magic, whatever it took - but, unfortunately, Rumplestiltskin had been out of action since the Darkness had been removed from him. 

Since her absent husband's magically induced coma, Belle had been running the Pawnshop and, while she and Belle could never be called bosom buddies, they did have one thing in common - they both wanted Rumple awake, so Gold's shop is where Regina Mills found herself on the morning after Henry had nearly totalled Granny's Diner.

The bell chimed above her as she swung the door open and she froze, gaping in shock as her son stood up, dagger in hand.

"Henry?"

Her son whirled around, eyes widening at the sight of her. She saw the dagger glistening in one black gloved hand and the hat on the desk and put two and two together. She started for the hat and Henry evidently panicked, leaping the desk in one swoop, sending the cash machine shattering to the ground; grasping the hat in one hand, the dagger drawn, he pointed it at her, his eyes flashed yellow - a yellow she wished they wouldn't, a yellow that was terribly familiar to her - and he seemed to be almost shaking in terror as he landed squarely on his feet.

"Henry - sweetie - put the hat down, put the dagger down, and let's talk."

"Why?" asked her son, eyes wide, face manic. "So you can steal it from me? So you can use me for your diabolical plans or trap me in the hat? No - they're mine. I need them."

"Henry-" she moved towards her son, the two of them slowly circling.

"Stay back!"

Her son reacted badly, waving the dagger. She caught the blast of magic and sent it shooting back at her son; Henry dived aside just in time and it exploded open the glass cases behind him, glass skittering and scattering, objects inside smashing and shattering into pieces. Her son scrambled to his feet, hat clutched to his chest and raced for the door, feet sliding on the coins. 

Regina moved, putting herself between her son and the door, but this didn't stop him - eyes narrowing, her charged at her, knocking her backwards. The door to the pawnshop broke open, cracking and toppling outwards; the two of them fell with it and, as she landed on the ground, she saw Henry scramble to his feet and race away.

"Henry!" she shouted after him, but it was too late - she saw her son vanish in a cloud of black smoke.

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

David heaved a set of books off the shelf in front of him and then ducked just in time - a set of enormous tomes flew off the shelf, soared through the air and circled around Emma, who was stood by the nearby table; her arms were spread out to her sides, her hair blew rapidly in the wind, and her eyes were rolling in her head as she used magic - the books circling around her had their pages flicked so rapidly that neither he nor Mary Margaret could make out the words.

As the new set of tomes circled around her, the others went shooting back to the shelf nearby, thundering back into the gap, rocking the shelf heavily.

Mary Margaret emerged from the backroom, pulling a cart of books. "I thought these might be useful," she said, opening one and showing it to David. "A history of the nastiest and most violent ways to awaken someone in a coma. There are a few in here that make me wince and Regina wouldn't have ever sunk to that level, but Zelena would have loved them."

The twosome stopped as two of the tomes hit one another and Emma slumped back into the chair behind her, tomes clattering heavily to the floor and sending dust flying.

"Emma?" Mary Margaret was at her side immediately, motherly instinct flaring to life. "Are you alright?"

"I found it," said Emma, panting and glancing up at her parents as she flicked open the tome that had landed on the nearby table. "Or, I found something, anyway."

Mary Margaret and David peered down at the page. There, staring up at them, was something that made David's heart sink - a reminder of his past that he wished to forget.

"The scales of a freshly slaughtered dragon?" he asked, frowning. "Where do we get a dragon in Storybrooke?"

"There's always Maleficent?" asked Mary Margaret.

"No," said Regina, frowning, as she appeared in a puff of smoke. "She can't die. As long as there's magic in Storybrooke, no matter how many times she has a sword thrown at her, Maleficent can't die."

"Then we'll have to find a way back to the Enchanted Forest," said Mary Margaret.

"That's not possible without a Dark Curse," said Regina, uncomfortably. "I should know - when I dumped us here the first time I wanted to make sure it was impossible - I'd have to undo the entire spell and send us all back, and who knows what all the magic in the Enchanted Forest would to Henry. But there might be another way. I hired a dragon, once, to kill you - long story, I'll tell you it all later," she added at the look on Mary Margaret's face. "Unfortunately, Rumple had it slaughtered as he needed you alive. I know I got some of the scales from him as compensation - I wonder if they came over?"

"Did you find anything at Gold's?" asked Emma.

"Well..."

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~**

Henry stared down at the hat in his hands and couldn't help the smile that crossed his face as he thought of what it meant for his plans, for his victory. Behind him, the Darkness tittered teasingly, nastily, manipulatively. Waving a hand, Henry summoned a crystal ball into his now bare hands, the hat vanishing.

"Show me Regina Mills..."

The crystal ball began to fog and then the image of his mother was revealed.

_"-it was like looking at a monster - Emma, our son - I think he tried to kill me..."_

"See how they've turned on you?" whispered the Darkness, slinking around him, glancing over his shoulder. "It's only been two days and they've already turned on you, cast you off as a monster, abandoned you..."

Henry growled angrily, crushing the crystal ball under his scaled hands; his nails creaked and groaned as they elongated and turned yellow - he didn't care this time, victory would be his.  _A monster, am I? I'll show you a monster..._

"It's time we put our plan into action," said the Darkness.

"Yes," agreed Henry, eyes flashing yellow as fury and anger surged through him. "Yes, you're right."

He summoned the dagger into one hand and a thin brown hair into the other; his unfortunate meeting with Belle had given him one advantageous object - one of her hairs. Grinning manically, he waved the dagger over the hair and watched the magic work. Darkness surged from the dagger to the hair, which exploded in a flash of pink.

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~**

Across town, in the backroom of his shop, Rumplestiltskin's eyes blinked slowly open and he groaned as he painfully sat up.

He jumped almost immediately as something very heavy hit the floor; his head snapped in that direction and he found himself face to face with Belle and the source of the noise - an enormous tome that she had been reading and had dropped in shock. It now lay wide open and neglected on the floor of his backroom. 

"Belle..."

"Rumple..."

* * *

 **Next Up - Chapter Three: The Light Within Darkness** \- in which Rumplestiltskin gets to grips with being light and learns what has occurred and Regina visits Zelena for some 'sisterly bonding', only to receive an unwanted guest that leads to unintended consequences.


	3. Light Within Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Three: The Light Within Darkness - in which Rumplestiltskin gets to grips with being light and learns what has occurred and Regina visits Zelena for some 'sisterly bonding', only to receive an unwanted guest that leads to unintended consequences.

* * *

**Disclaimer:**   _Once Upon A Time, all related concepts and anything you recognise do not belong to me. I am merely borrowing them to bring you this story - and for my own personal enjoyment - as they actually belong to Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis. Any OC's and things you do not recognise, however, are copyrighted to me, TheAwesomeWriter._

 **Rating:**   _Mature._

 **Pairings:**   _TBA_

 **Genre:**   _Fantasy/Drama_

 **Warnings:**   _TBA_

 **Story Summary:** _What happens when Emma Swan tries to take the Dagger, but fate conspires to change things?_

 **Thank You:**   _Thank you to anyone and everyone who brainstormed this story with me._

* * *

  **Chapter III: The Light Within Darkness**

* * *

Zelena glanced up from her bed-chair-hard-on-her-back-whatever-the-thing-she-was-sleeping-on-was as the door swung open. Short haired and pale, eyes looking a little rimmed, was her sister - well,  _half_ -sister - Regina.

"Finally decided to pay me a visit?" Zelena asked grumpily, putting  _"H_ _ow to Murder and Kill Annoying Sisters In A Way That Hides You Have Actually Done it"_ down on to the seat. "I've been in here for three weeks now. Have you come to fight - and lose - again?"

Regina merely glared as she shut the door behind her. For a moment, she ground her teeth and made several movements to reach for the door, before stealing herself and sighing as she turned back to Zelena. "Did you ever learn, in all those years you were abandoned in Oz, how to take the Darkness out of someone?" she asked. 

"No," said Zelena, shrugging in boredom. "Why? What's the savour done _now_?"

"She hasn't done anything," admitted Regina, in a tone that Zelena could tell was incredibly grudging and reluctant. "Henry has."

Zelena snorted for a moment and then began to laugh, rocking backwards and forwards, cackling with glee, almost crying in delight. "The son you worked so hard to defeat me and be reunited with has gone and done something stupid..."

"Yes," said Regina plainly. "He has."

"Perhaps I have," came a rather angry voice from behind Regina and Zelena saw a puff of black smoke behind her sister's back. "Perhaps I haven't. I believe that's for me to decide."

Zelena smirked maliciously as Regina whirled around, eyes wide, fists clamping into fists immediately. There, glaring angrily, hands gloved, clad in leather and denim, was Henry.

"Henry-"

"Is this your life now, Mom?" asked Henry mockingly, hands on his hips and a nasty smirk on his face as he cut his mother off. "Tattling on me to your nut-job sister?"

"Excuse me!" snapped Zelena indignantly, glaring at her adoptive nephew. "I prefer 'Wicked Sister' or 'Better Sister'."

"How about failure?" asked Henry, sneering, not even looking at her, baiting and goading his mother into snapping. "Or idiot - or insane moron - stop me when you find one you like - or -"

"Henry, enough!" snapped Regina angrily, summoning a flash of magic before she knew what she was doing. Henry stopped mid sentence, eyes widening. A malicious grin crossed his face and even Zelena felt a chill of fear go down her spine.

"Oh ho ho!" laughed Henry, voice full of mirth and mocking, oozing like oil. "Mom has a back bone - well - go on - don't let me stop you!" He stepped back and spread his arms wide.

"What do you want, Henry?" sighed Regina, vanishing her magic and sighing. 

"Oh," sighed Henry, apparently actually disappointed. "Maybe she doesn't have a backbone - how disappointing. No wonder I ran away - such a _pathetic_ mother. As it happens, what I want is you - or, rather, your help. You've been difficult to track down since our altercation in Grandpa's shop a few days ago."

"Why would I help you?"

"I thought you'd ask..." said Henry and then, right before Zelena's eyes, he moved quicker than Regina did and Zelena couldn't suppress a gasp as Henry's hand plunged into Regina's chest, a black and red heart thumping in his gloved hand as he removed it. "You'll help me because you won't have a choice. You'll help me because, if you don't, I'll crush it."

"What do you need help with?"

"Come and see," said Henry nastily, vanishing both himself and his mother in a two puffs of black smoke.

 _He left the door unlocked. Now I can make my -_ the lock turned, clunking tightly shut _\- damn._

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

Regina landed very uncomfortably in somewhere that was rather dark and stuffy. As she straightened herself up and took in her surroundings, she realised that it was an old house -  _Where in Storybrooke am I?_

"Come," said Henry to her heart and she couldn't resist the pull of following. "I need to show you something."

As she followed him into the side room, through a nearby creaky door, her eyes widened. Sat on the edge of the table was the Sorcerer's hat and a Bunsen burner was under a magical fire, making a bowl of something bubble. Something that she didn't recognise, but was evidently a form of magic, was floating in a nearby orb.

"What am I doing here?" she asked.

Henry turned to her, her heart in hand, and frowned. "I need you to make it work," he said plainly, looking rather annoyed. "You know more about magic than I do."

"Make it work?" she asked. "Make it do what?"

"That," Henry pointed at the floating orb as he spoke. "Is supposed to react with that," he pointed at the hat. "To make more magic." He squeezed the heart. "Make. It. Work. Now."

Regina cried out in pain, almost falling to her knees. "How?" she asked, barely able to speak.

"I don't know," said Henry, as if it was obvious. "If I knew how to make it work I wouldn't have had to come to you and make you fix it, would I? Now, get too work." He squeezed the heart again. "I'll be back in a few hours to see what progress you've made. Don't disappoint me."

With her heart in hand, he vanished.

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

Waking up after a magically induced coma was, Rumplestiltskin decided, officially _the_ weirdest thing he'd ever done - and he'd lived for two hundreds years and made deals for everything from babies to actual living excrement. A magically induced coma being the weirdest thing he'd ever done was why he'd slept for another three days - his heart had recovered from the removal of magic, but after three days of his body being on full throttle to fuel his heart's recovery, he needed food and sleep, both of which he'd now had.

"So, tell me what's happened in the last few days," he said to Belle as they sat around the breakfast table in his salmon pink house, two empty plates sitting at the edge of the table, a plate of crackers and butter between them. "Since the whole book thing..."

"Well," began Belle. Her reply was, as he'd expected, a little terse, something that didn't surprise him given what he'd done, but she seemed open to talking. "The Darkness almost possessed Regina, then Emma tried to take it from her, then Henry took it from  _her_ , so he's now the Dark One. He had an altercation in the shop with someone, as you saw," Rumple nodded in acknowledgement. "As far as I am aware he's only taken the broken Sorcerer's hat - it exploded after we took the Darkness out of you and then reformed for a bit."

Rumplestiltskin took in Belle's information, frowning; all of him tingled strangely - he hadn't felt like this since before he become the Dark One, all those hundreds of years ago, back when Bae had been alive and just a boy.

"Rumple," said Belle, unintentionally shaking him from his pensive thoughts. "What does he want with the hat?"

"Probably the same as what I wanted," said Rumplestiltskin, thinking back to when he'd been using the hat, just mere days ago. "To find a way to be all powerful without being tethered to the dagger... If he is anything like I was, then he'll have fallen to the Darkness much quicker than he believes or wanted too. Bae nearly succumbed once too, but I erased his memory of it, so he never remembered it."

"Poor Henry," sighed Belle.

"Poor us," said Rumplestiltskin, gravely. "If he goes down a very dark path, we might  _all_ suffer before he's finished with his plans."

**~~~ThePrinceOfDarkness~~~**

Henry emerged from a puff of smoke immediately behind her; she was so used to the sound of it now, the gentle footfalls of her son, that she didn't even jump at his arrival. The impatient tone in his voice did, however, annoy her. He hadn't used that whining tone around her since he'd been six years old and she'd denied him desert until he'd learned not to use it - a matter of hours if she remembered rightly.

"Have you got anything?" he asked impatiently, hovering over her shoulder like a little bouncing bunny on springs. His gloved hands gripped the side of the desk anxiously, closing and uncurling repeatedly.

"No," Regina admitted, frowning down at his hands, at the dark gloves that were obviously hiding something. "But I think I'm getting close. I've managed to make it go green and purple."

"It's more than I could do," Henry admitted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced at the measuring gasses and beakers. "Anything else?"

"No," she said, swilling some water in a measuring glass and frowning, annoyed, at it. "But if you can get me some sprigs of Lavender I might be able to make something work..."

Henry grinned nastily, something that sent shivers down her spine. "I'll get right on it. You can sleep tonight, if you want?" he asked, seemingly himself again for a moment. "I need you awake and alert, not dropping like a fly. There's a kitchen and bed in the other rooms. I don't need sleep anymore - or food, for that matter."

"Henry-"

"Please," he said, cutting her off with a raise of his hand; it was no magic this time, or a squeeze of her heart - just her pleading son. "Do this for me and I'll let you go. You have my word as the Dark One, as your son..." Regina sighed, truly wanting to believe there was some of her son left under the Darkness that inhabited him. "I promise," he continued. "On my honour - you raised me well."

"Alright," she said, placating her son. "Alright."

Henry gave her a true smile, a kind smile, and she turned back to the desk, more confident in the fact that her son was, indeed, still inside the Darkness inhabited body, fighting it from the inside out.

She missed Henry's kind smile twist into a nasty smirk before he vanished in a puff of black smoke, his eyes turning bright yellow as he did so. 

* * *

 

 **Up Next - Chapter Four: The Master And The Apprentice** \- in which Regina is released from her servitude and she and Gold work together to find a way to free Henry from the Darkness and Emma and the Charmings receive an uncomfortable visit.


End file.
